The presence of ferocious wind these past few days has been disconcerting. It's thumping, booming loud, hard to ignore. Actually, the entire weather picture has been entirely unusual. Without the wind today would have seemed like a balmy day with an afternoon high of 4C. Nothing resembling the norm for this time of year, here. Aggressive wind like this in stormy gusts makes dogs nervous, and Jackie and Jillie are no exceptions.

This morning, our neighbour Dan came by to tell us that a portion of the fence separating our backyards gave way to the wind. They have an in-ground swimming pool so he wanted us to be aware, for Jackie and Jillie. He and his son plan to restore the broken uprights. They don't need any help from Irving. But Irving took advantage of the fact that the snow has melted given the mild temperatures of the past week, and the present temperate 4C to finish covering all the garden pots and statuary. The months ahead with the inevitable winter storms are hard, year after year, on these cast-stone garden ornaments.

 

I was busy in the kitchen as usual, on Friday morning. In Irving's absence, I tried to open a new jar of loose yeast, but nothing would budge that lid. I had added the yeast from the nearly-empty jar currently in use but thought the bread dough I was preparing could use a little more yeast; it was just not to be. And I decided to bake cupcakes for a change; very large ones, actually, easily twice the size of ordinary cupcakes. So we end up with six rather than a dozen.

I had bought a lime a week ago for that purpose. A cup of coconut also goes into the cupcakes, along with the lime zest and the juice of the lime. Irving was back in the house in time to squeeze the lime of its juice for me with the use of a lemon-juicer. He has, understandably, a much firmer grip than me, though I can beat cake batter or knead bread dough far more energetically than he can; an object lesson in repetitive motion and acquired skills, not brute strength.

 

As the afternoon rolled around, we were fairly certain we wouldn't be going out to the ravine with Jackie and Jillie. Conditions in the forest where the trails continually climb hills and descend into valleys have turned dangerous this past week. All the snow we've accumulated has turned to ice as a result of mild days and icy night time temperatures. It's almost impossible to evade the icy trails since they're now so wide.

Yesterday's hike through the forest with Jackie and Jillie required great care and even for us, so familiar with the terrain in all conditions, the challenge was physically arduous. So, we would have to go elsewhere with Jackie and Jillie and elsewhere is the neighbourhood streets and parks. In our neighbourhood there is no end of parks, many of them abutting on the ravine, because it is so extensive. 

 

Not the most preferential of walking routes in our opinion, but at least it's something. The wind blasted us continually, so that even the muted temperature seemed cold. Jillie was decidedly unenthusiastic about the venue she found herself in, but Jackie, curious as always, was everywhere, examining and trotting along to examine anything that looked new and different -- and everything did, to him.

 

The sky was an angry, dark, streaked charcoal grey, looking as though it was prepared at any moment to open up and deliver a snowsquall, but it just stayed moody, without any ground effect. We could certainly use some snow to liven up the drab landscape. Eventually we ended up on the street behind our own, where the cheerful sight of Christmas decorations in front of various homes lent an air of lightheartedness and expectation to the sour, dark environment.